Borderworld Raidho

Raidho, a small darkish blue sphere in the outer reaches of the Altamira system. It was the farthest from the sun, and was plunged in almost perpetual twilight. On its surface, freezing winds howled across unending plains of ice and great expanses of jagged ice. The planet would appear utterly devoid of life if it were not for the dark ships and orbital relay stations that hovered around it, suspended silently in the dark void of space. Several ships cruised by, slowly patrolling the area even though the border had remained quiet for decades. Beyond Raidho lay the rest of the galaxy, somewhere few Anun'a had ventured into.

“...And are we sure that the Meinheiser Project picked up Communication Frequencies in this star cluster?” came the demanding question from the Female Telian officer, her hands resting on the Command and Control Table, the screen below her hands just showing the various icons for the Ships moving through warp, judging from the icon’s, the patrol was comprised mostly of about four Cruisers and the Carrier itself. A standard deep space patrol but each icon showed the levels of refuelling that the Carrier was going to have to perform and indeed the time for which the fuel reserves would need to restock. As her eyes stared from this screen up towards one of the glass screens nearby, where the transmission of a Male Cxami Scientist, fairly skinny, wearing what could only be described as the nerdiest pair of glasses ever and tapping his tablet as he responded “Ye-yes ma’am... We Analysed the data from the project at the two point five Ly range scan of the Transmitter you installed... and there shows an-”

“Cut the scientific crap, Doctor Jun. Are you sure that the Star system we are warping too, is the focus of these Frequencies? Yes or no.” came the question as the Doctor stared at her before quickly looking at another screen with test results as if unsure himself before saying “We believe so, yes, Rear Admiral Teleni.” There was a small frown from the Rear Admiral as she nodded “that’ll do. We’ve got Foreign Ministry diplomats onboard... and a yes is better than a no at this point. Closing Transmission.” came his only remark before mumbling “Hope the Universal Translator’s we have work... otherwise this is gonna go down the airlock.” as her hand tapped the screen, closing as she stared at the universal map, they were fairly far from the Commonwealth’s borders, not outside of it’s Article 12 military space permittance, but still they were close.

“Attention all hands this is the Captain speaking, Patrol will be leaving warp in: thirty seconds.” came the voice from the captain as the Rear admiral moved her hand towards a conveniently placed barrier. Most crews in the Commonwealth had been... trained for this sort of exit as the ship began it’s shaking. The map’s and indeed glass screens updating with information from the cruisers, the Carrier and indeed the system that they were approaching.

Altamira System, Raidho Lunar orbit.

It only takes a small blink for the Commonwealth’s Ships to suddenly appear in space, quite literally it would appear as five bubbles suddenly entering the space and popping as the sight of a large Carrier type vessel and four of it’s cruisers seem to slow to a stop held in orbit as the ships seem to position themselves in some sort of careful orbit around the planet. Each ship seemed to be designed for practicality than any elegance, but still... there was no signs that it looked like the engineers had decided to bolt junk too it, that’s for sure.

Suddenly, and without much warning the ships broadcasted a single transmission “Attention, unknown species. This is diplomat Gen of the Commonwealth of Sonra. We have no intentions of war and are merely looking for peaceful contact with your kind. Please could you respond as soon as possible to confirm your peaceful intent.” the message seemed to be on a loop as if waiting to see if there would be a response to their peaceful hails.

"Well, it looks like the galaxy found us", said Nanük, raising his pale eyes towards the holographic display that stood in the centre of the observation room. Several holograms hovered there, several ships of alien design whose presence had been detected fifteen minutes ago. The message they'd sent was still playing, its incomprehensible chatter filling the observation room. "The Council won't be too happy with this", he added.

"What do you think they're saying?", asked another operator as he eyed his holoscreen. Nanük shook his head and shrugged.

"Ka! I don't know. For all we know it could be a declaration of war. Anyway, send an answer. Use Llaiu scrypt and send the usual message. Talking to them in our language won't improve comprehension."

The operator nodded and began typing something out on his holoscreen. Llaiu scrypt was a mathematical language that had been elaborated specifically for communicating with other civilisations, since mathematics were considered to be a universal science by the Anun'a. The message was simple, clear and went like this: 'We are the Anun'a Federation and we send you our greetings."

"Message sent."

Nanük turned his gaze back to the hologram of the alien ships, his heart beating faster. Never had the Anun'a people encountered another species before, and many had wished this would never happen. The Anun'a were indeed a cautious race, preferring to stay in the safety of isolation. But it seemed that the dreaded Day of Opening had arrived, and the Anun'a would have to live through its challenges.

“We’ve got a Transmission back!” came the shout from the officers in the CnC deck, Teleni almost instantly rushed over towards the officer as she weaved through the various officers before leaning her right arm onto the chair of the officer and staring at the message appearing on their screen as she said “Shut off the transmission. Run that through the Translator and cross reference in our database as well.” as she stared at it before looking over at the other officer. “Send A Warpnet Transmission back to the Foreign Ministry: We have first contact with unidentified stellar nation. First contact is proceeding under normal protocols. No weapons have been fired.” As she returned to staring at the transmission. As the translation finished with a raised eyebrow from the Rear Admiral as she said “Add to the transmission that the nation has identified themselves as the Anun’a Federation. Alright, send the package.”

With that she stared at the transmission before saying “Alright Diplomat, send your next transmission.” as she looked over at the diplomat standing nearby, the diplomat was a female Telian and already tapping away as the single word of “I have just the message for them.” merely made the smile on the Rear Admiral glimmer as she added “I’m leaving you in charge of this one. Don’t screw up.” “I try not too, Rear Admiral.” came the sarcastic tone from the diplomat as she looked at the officer and starting to talk quickly.

Sent back, was a single transmission in the same code that had been sent.

“Greeting, Anun’a Federation. We are representing the Commonwealth of sonra, My name is Shia Gen and as a gift we are sending our Standard Language package with this to help your translators.”

The rest of the message, was to put it bluntly a complete copy of Commonwealth Language with all it’s words, grammar and indeed sentence structure. As the diplomat stared at the screen again once it was sent with a small look of nervousness as she bit the nail on her thumb lightly, as if hoping they didn’t take this the wrong way.

"Display the message", said Nanük, turning towards another holoscreen. In a blink, words appeared on it to form a coherent sentence:

“Greetings, Anun’a Federation. We are representing the Commonwealth of Sonra, my name is Shia Gen and as a gift we are sending our Standard Language package with this to help your translators.”

"Well that's useful", said Nanük, "set up the translators and get them to work on this package, I'll contact the Higher Council and the Council of Raidho."

While Nanük set about informing the two councils of the arrival of an unknown civilisation in the system of Altamira, the autotranslator got to work on the Sonran language. It took a while for the computer to assimilate the information, and after 45 minutes of processing, a new message was ready to be sent, this time in the language of Sonra:

"We thank you for the gift and ask whether you wish to establish diplomatic relations with the Federation?"

There had been, for the most part a 45 minute wait of silence, a few cup of coffee’s, a diplomat staring at the screen intently as if still in the hope that this wasn’t a trap, hell she was betting alot of things that it wasn’t. Various naval officers were passing by as Teleni stood back at her table. Not really paying attention as the data from each planet for their Universe database showed a high amount of ice planets... that didn’t bode well if this turned sour. Her eyes turned back to the diplomat before saying “Just... how much of the pack did you send, Diplomat?” “All of it.” there was an instant silence as the rear admiral replies “By Sonra, no longer it’s taking so long.” as she shook her head at the diplomat.

It would of turned into a full fledged argument had it the Officer on the communications suddenly shouted “Incoming Transmission! Sonran Standard Language!” which got the diplomat rushing over with her half finished coffee cup and peering at the screen.

"We thank you for the gift and ask whether you wish to establish diplomatic relations with the Federation?"

Was all it said, but the hope in the Diplomat’s eyes seemed to be greater as she started to type and brought up the message. The officer looking at her and nodding as he tapped a few keys as the Carrier sent the message back:

“The Commonwealth of Sonra wishes Diplomatic Relations if the Anun’a Federation allows it, but would be grateful if you send us a language pack of your own standard language for our Translators so as to make this as smooth as possible.”

Nanük kept muttering "ka!" to himself. The Higher Council and the Council of Raidho had been informed, and they had sent new directives. They wanted the Sonran envoys to land on Raidho and commence diplomatic talks immediately, regardless of their biology and resistance to extremely cold temperatures. The Anun'a liked testing others, and the Sonrans would be no exception. Nanük was not particularly happy dealing with these Sonrans. What he wanted was to be rid of this responsibility as quickly as possible.

"Send message", he said before dictating it: "We invite you to send one or several unarmed envoys to Raidho in order to begin diplomatic talks."

The Rear admiral was having alot of coffee today, alot of coffee. As she stared at the message before saying “They want us to send a delegation down to a planet that is minus over a hundred degrees?” There was a sip from the officer as her mind still tried to process that through before finally saying “Well, talk about testing the atmospheric suits we developed.” as the screen showing the diplomats being prepared for the artic conditions could be seen on her screen, various scientists working on each one as the screen changed towards an incoming message as the words ‘Priority one’ was labelled underneath as she said “Alright, bring it up.”

As the screen opened up on her table, the Foreign minister sat there. His own black suit and indeed hands clasped showed that he wasn’t in the mood for the official Ikajo, not on this one as he started to speak. “This is Sonra to Patrol one one delta. Rear Admiral Teleni I’ll make this brief, should negotiations be proceeding as planned then know that the Commonwealth of Sonra has approved all diplomatic measures that can be taken. I understand that after the last false alarm you are slightly cynical about the project, but this is the best chance at making allies. There are consequences if the results turn into failure. Sonra out.” as the transmission closed the Rear admiral’s eyes had narrowed significantly before smirking “Well now, it appears the boss wants results... good.” As she binned the cup into a nearby waste disposal unit, the small dot of the transport holding the diplomats appearing on her screen.

From the outside, a single hanger door opened up as a diplomatic transport started to speed off towards the planet. The ship speeding towards the location as it’s engines seemed to slow down before saying “Planet Raidho, this is Commonwealth diplomatic Vessel 66-C. We are preparing to enter atmosphere now, requesting landing coordinates.” as it started to proceed towards the atmosphere, waiting for the reply from the Anun’a.

Landing coordinates were soon sent to the Commonwealth's ship. The landing area was Raidho's capital, Rai'dun, which had a large starport built in its centre. The weather there was also more suited for a landing due to the relative absence of strong winds, which had also allowed the building of large surface structures. From space, the city looked like a large, round expanse of grey buildings dotted by a million shimmering lights. An escort had been prepared with members of the local police force awaiting the Sonran delegation at the starport. The Sonrans would be escorted to the Council dome, the city's administrative centre.

Officer Meiya stood on the large flat platform of the starport. A soft but freezing breeze was blowing over the structure, a breeze that Meiya considered to be quite pleasant. Behind her were her fellow police officers, all quietly discussing the arrival of the aliens. All were wondering what these aliens looked like, and whether or not they would turn out to be friendly. The general feeling was suspicion mixed with curiosity, as the Anun'a's isolationist nature was being severely tested by the arrival of these strangers from another world. Meiya lifted her pale green eyes to the dark sky, looking for a sign of the Sonran ship.

Atmospheric suits, even the diplomatic ones were not comfortable. Shia knew that much from her training, but the cold... the cold could be felt from within the transport as she checked the screen showing the outside temperature... it was in the minuses! Any commonwealth operation be it civilian or military would be frozen without the proper preperation. She shook her head as she stared at the specially designed Tablet for the suits and reading through all of the diplomatic procedures granted one last time, hell, there was alot of complexities for this one which made... negotiations important.

“Landing pad in sight, preparing to land!”

As the ship came into view, it’s own design looked like a futuristic VTOL plane, it’s wing’s slowly closing as three sets of treads started to unfold for artic climate, the whole thing slowly and carefully turning around at the landing pad as it settled down. It’s engines slowly dying as the landing ramp unfolded letting two figures in full atmospheric suits step down, the young, fresh face of the diplomat and a man easily her elder next too her as they arrived close to the Officer, they both bowed as the female spoke up

“Greetings, we are the delegates from the Commonwealth of Sonra.” Her translator seemingly working so that her voice came out with there’s, albeit it a little funny, as if it was being processed through some sort of automated voice machine and then returning to the speakers original tone.

Meiya's eyes widened. A small ship was coming down from the dark skies, its design unlike anything she'd seen before. Losing no time she turned to her fellow police officers and barked:

"Stand to attention!"

Boots slammed into the hard ground as the policemen stood stiffly to attention, planting their fists on their hearts. Meiya looked to the sky again. The ship was now lowering itself onto the landing pad, and she could see large patches of ice that had formed over its fuselage. Whatever the ship was made out of, it couldn't stop the formation of ice as well as sichrolite alloy could.

"And so they come", said a quiet voice nearby. Meiya started but relaxed when she saw who had spoken. Timur, a representative that the Council had sent, was unnervingly quiet. In fact, Meiya had completely forgotten his presence until he'd spoken up.

"Hopefully they do not bring Unbalance and strife", he added. Not quite knowing what to say to that, Meiya simply nodded.

Before them, the alien ship's engines had died. A ramp opened with a hiss, and the creatures that came lumbering out of the spacecraft made Meiya whisper "ka!". They were big, clumsy creatures, hobbling down the ramp towards the Anun'a policemen. At first, Meiya thought they had to be some kind of artificial beings, robots from a planet covered by shining metallic structures and endless cities, but it quickly became apparent that there were actually creatures of flesh and blood encased in these suits. Obviously they did not like the cold, which was amusing considering how lightly the Anun'a were dressed. All Meiya wore was some light armour, standard grey blue fatigues and a holovisor.

One of the creatures spoke, and Meiya was amazed to hear somewhat distorted Anun'a words reach her ears. Timur stepped forth and bowed before speaking. After he'd spoken, a small machine hanging from his neck spoke crisp but utterly incomprehensible sounds to the aliens.

"Welcome to Raidho", he said, "we are here to escort you to the Council Dome, where you shall meet our representatives."

Beneath the suit, there was a small blink as Shia realised that the translator’s weren’t working properly... lovely. This was gonna get interesting. As she politely nodded as if acknowledging the greeting as she merely responded “Please, lead the way.” in a cheerful voice as possible... unfortunately the translator probably nullified that sort of thing so it was kind of pointless to try being civil, but she smiled at the very least. As they looked around before finally adding “Could I also enquire sir about that necklace?”

A small cocked helmet showing that the diplomat was rather curious about what had just come out of it, although the translation had appeared on her screen... the necklace sounds felt like chalk running down a chalkboard. It was... haunting at the very least for her ears as she waited for the escort to begin, as they stepped off the landing ramp proper, the transport seemed to close up the ramp. Appearing to wish to conserve as much heat as was possible in temperatures like this.